When a camel who refuses to get up gets more applause than the human actors, you know you're watching a film where reality has left the building. This isn't the talking camel of "Road to Morocco" or even the scene-stealer from "Ishtar", just one that looks at the person screaming at it and growls. I growled at the human actors too, obviously paid for a trip to the Middle East to film this disturbing action film about slave trading and doctor Michael Caine's effort to find his beautiful wife, Beverly Johnson.
Assumed to be a peasant without worth, she's actually a doctor working with her husband, and because she's black, assumed to be just another one of the natives. Johnson indeed is exquisite, and it's easy to see why Caine's character would be in love with her. She's smart and loyal and compassionate, and she certainly wouldn't approve of his leaving behind a group of black children that he rescued from another group of slave traders in the hot desert sun.
The head of the slave trading ring is Peter Ustinov who should have remembered the bad reviews he got for playing an Arab King in "John Goldfarb Please Come Home". Ustinov doesn't play the role as comical at all, but for those who have seen that film, you can't help but laugh at him in memory of that fiasco.
Then there are William Holden and Rex Harrison, cast in extended cameos, nearing the end of their film careers, aiding Holden in various ways in finding his wife. Omar Sharif and Kabir Bedhi play Arabic characters, and the more well known Sharif is pretty much a bit part as an Arab ruler who is given the opportunity to purchase Johnson.
The desert footage is breathtaking to look at with its vistas, and I'm sure on a big screen, it looks fantastic even if it is not at all a good film. It isn't a bad one, but for those who like films with scenery, it is enjoyable simply for that element. The scene where Caine yells at the children to leave him alone is heartbreaking although he knows that he really can't help them even though by leaving them in the desert, they are risking a worse fate than being sold as slaves. There's also a scene in the slave market involving children that is very disturbing. It's easy to see why this has been forgotten because it is overly long and rather depressing.
Assumed to be a peasant without worth, she's actually a doctor working with her husband, and because she's black, assumed to be just another one of the natives. Johnson indeed is exquisite, and it's easy to see why Caine's character would be in love with her. She's smart and loyal and compassionate, and she certainly wouldn't approve of his leaving behind a group of black children that he rescued from another group of slave traders in the hot desert sun.
The head of the slave trading ring is Peter Ustinov who should have remembered the bad reviews he got for playing an Arab King in "John Goldfarb Please Come Home". Ustinov doesn't play the role as comical at all, but for those who have seen that film, you can't help but laugh at him in memory of that fiasco.
Then there are William Holden and Rex Harrison, cast in extended cameos, nearing the end of their film careers, aiding Holden in various ways in finding his wife. Omar Sharif and Kabir Bedhi play Arabic characters, and the more well known Sharif is pretty much a bit part as an Arab ruler who is given the opportunity to purchase Johnson.
The desert footage is breathtaking to look at with its vistas, and I'm sure on a big screen, it looks fantastic even if it is not at all a good film. It isn't a bad one, but for those who like films with scenery, it is enjoyable simply for that element. The scene where Caine yells at the children to leave him alone is heartbreaking although he knows that he really can't help them even though by leaving them in the desert, they are risking a worse fate than being sold as slaves. There's also a scene in the slave market involving children that is very disturbing. It's easy to see why this has been forgotten because it is overly long and rather depressing.